New Study says New Media Use by Catholics Not Promising?

Many in the Church assume that the way to connect with this emergent generation of Catholics is not through traditional print media, television, or radio but online—through blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accessed on smart phones, tablets, and e-readers. The hope is often stated that we may be able to use new media to get this generation “back into the real world pews” that are more often populated by their parents and grandparents. [...]

The findings from these studies suggest that the emerging picture for new media use by Catholic adults overall—and especially among the Millennials is not as promising as many hope or assume. The problem is that putting something online is not the same as getting something on someone’s coffee table, front porch, or even in their mailbox. The Internet is a much more vast space and is navigated by search and social network. You can’t force people to consume your content. You likely won’t even get it on their computer screen or iPhone unless they are interested in it and looking for it.

Here are a few other points from the study and my comments:

“While 22% of adult Millennial Catholics have read a print copy of their diocesan newspaper in the last three months (compared to 26% of all adult Catholics) only 4% of those in this generation have sought this out and read it online.”

There are two main reasons for this: 1) Most diocesan paper websites are not very good and are only just now getting their content properly represented online. And most importantly, 2) the online versions are not engaging people. It just sits there at some address on the web waiting for people to show up. At least with the print versions of the papers it is being mailed to doorsteps and dropped on kitchen tables - one form of old school engagement. There’s nothing wrong with that, it gets your stuff in front of your audience. But it’s not very efficient. And it is probably unsustainable for a lot of organizations to continue paying the high printing and mailing costs to an audience that would increasingly prefer to read online.

Newspapers have to transfer that kind of basic engagement to the online world. Hardly anyone would read their paper if they just printed it up and then left a stack of newspapers sitting at the diocesan office doorway. You wouldn’t even come close to the 4% readership their websites are getting. So you wouldn’t expect their websites to do any better necessarily. Diocesan papers just have to do a better job of getting their content in front of people online, too. The trouble is that it’s increasingly more difficult to force people to look at you. If you don’t have compelling and/or entertaining content, then people will disengage - even if it is showing up for free in their mailbox every month. People are disengaging more and more from the snail mail, too. Most of mine goes straight into the garbage. So I hope newspapers (and other print pubs) will read this study as a, “Yes, the old channels of distribution are still legitimate…for awhile. But you had better be already making strong efforts to make your content desirable, engaging and competitive online.” And I think that they are. It will just take time. And it would be to their own detriment to interpret this study as a sign they don’t need to be changing the way they are doing things for the future.

“Few Catholics report doing anything with new media that is related to religion and spirituality at all. It’s not that Catholics aren’t online or using new media. They just aren’t using these to do things related to their faith in any great number.”

This is primarily, I would suggest, not because Catholic new media can’t translate online, but because we haven’t translated it well enough yet. We can’t just take our same old broadcast or print media, digitize it and post it on a website for download. That’s a good start. But people use the web for much more than that and it gets to the heart of the social web. The content has to become engaging. We have to be present - not just our stuff (content). It’s relationships, not just profiles. It’s social engagement, not just broadcasting information. Our Catholic content must take on a new life and format online. In many ways, this presents huge (untapped) opportunities to personalize and minister to people through our Catholic content, which, I think, is the ultimate use of it.

It’s also worth mentioning, to be fair, that there will still be a tendency for some people (and perhaps all people to some extent) to pair their faith experience with “unplugging,” therefore preferring non-digital media when it comes to content related to their faith and spirituality. That’s fine. And it assures at least some place (at least for a good while) for traditional forms of media. But even that will be transformed by digital and new media in many ways that not only retain the experience of unplugging, but actually enhance it.

And we shouldn’t forget, either, that the average Catholic is not all that interested in their faith, period. So while they are very likely to have watched a Justin Bieber video, they just don’t find the Vatican youtube channel that interesting. That’s partially because they aren’t on fire for their faith and partially because we need more Catholic content that is also entertaining and engaging. But the former problem is one that will never be solved by any amount of technology.

“The current discourse surrounding Catholic new media is often very rosy and optimistic. The data just do not match this conversation—yet. Traditional media sources continue to be more often used and preferred by Catholics for religious and spiritual content.”

I think my comments above apply to this point as well. However, I wanted to make another distinction that’s really important. Just because the average Catholic may not be consuming Catholic “content” or news online, it doesn’t mean the Church shouldn’t be using it for other important reasons. The Church doesn’t just create content for its members to consume. It builds relationships with them. So forget about content for a second. How are we using new media technologies to communicate with our parishioners? Because most parishioners want to do just that. But most parishes do not do this well - at all.

There may not be as many Catholics in the pew who want to know how to defend the biblical canon or how to pray the divine office on an iPad, but there are lots who need to know when Mass is this Sunday, or that a parish meeting has been cancelled, or that more food is needed at the food pantry, or that their skills are needed fixing up the new youth house this weekend. Parishes also need to give easy, convenient ways for parishioners to connect with all of the ministries they offer - making it easier for people to get involved. New Media helps the Church do all of this - and many other things - better.

”[W]hat can be concluded is that creating content for new media does not mean people will use it. The era of broadcasting is over. In a narrowcasted world, people have to be aware of and want to visit and use your content. Right now not enough Catholics seem interested or aware. Is it the content? Is it the crowded media environment? Is it a culture consumed by pop media and entertainment? Is it secularization?”

I’d say it’s ALL of those things. We need better content that is medium appropriate. We need media that is engaging and social and is, at least sometimes, entertaining. In many other ways we also need to get to the point where we are not just “Catholic media creators” but “Media Creators who are Catholic.” And in the midst of all of it we must be calling people back to the faith that will set their life on fire with meaning and purpose amidst an over-saturated, secular, media obsessed pop-culture.

Comments

Well now, I honestly don’t know if I qualify as “young” anymore; since I’m now 37, I’m becoming ever closer to the “elder” category, though admittedly that seems VERY strange to me. (At least, until I cross paths with a 19-year-old fresh from high school whom I swear belongs in Junior High, but never mind about that….. *chuckles*) I’d like to offer a thought or two.

I don’t actually know what TO think about newer media.
Honestly, I’m a little stunned to see someone refer to a radio broadcast as “old media”. Outside of Archbishop Sheen’s broadcasts on network TV, I think the only media I’ve ever heard of was—and still is—EWTN. THAT didn’t begin until 1985 or so, and didn’t even cover an entire broadcast day. (Yes, I know, 1985 will seem like ancient history to some, but I turned 11 that year, and I remember thinking that a satellite dish looked REALLY, REALLY COOL! ...And cable TV was something we couldn’t afford!)
Outside that, the only other radio or TV Catholic outlet that I’ve heard about has been my local Catholic radio station, which didn’t actually begin until…15 years ago(?). Again, it may sound like a long time, but it has been anything but in the grand scheme of things.

I don’t intend by this to demonstrate that I’m rapidly becoming a fossil or that I’m not open to newer ideas. Far from it. Rather, I wish to remind you all that..whatever media we choose, we can’t behave as though newer media will solve lots of problems. It won’t.

If I may say so, I’ve seen this frame of mind before. All through my teens, I got the strong impression that ours was a new generation, we weren’t bound by the old rules, etc. So we went about life as if we were about to transform our lives and everyone else’s.
We wound up frequently falling flat on our noses.
Many of us quit attending Mass because it became “boring”. We hadn’t learned our faith well enough to know what to expect.
Others kept attending..with kids..sometimes with spouses, but often enough, not.
Others of us kept attending Mass..and wound up struggling with what our faith actually taught vice what it didn’t.

In some ways, the internet has been a genuine blessing in my faith life: I can refer to various web sites more or less at will, look up what I wish at any time. Or I can join with a virtual crowd in a rosary. Or I can read commentary from a Catholic frame of mind.

In some ways though, the internet has been a curse in my faith life:
I remember the first time I crossed paths with a traditional faith group. After digging around the internet through a dozen or so sites related to faith, I finally discerned that the faith group I’d come across..wasn’t in communion with Rome..so I ceased going to the parish. ..But the internet couldn’t provide answers to the questions they raised. It couldn’t. Even the best-looking site in the world won’t tell you how a group of faithful people can be best described as schismatic if they don’t wish to admit to their own sinful pride. Similar kinds of groups won’t offer that kind of information either.

I love the internet for the insights I can read from Fr Z (WDTPRS.com) or the fact that I can toss out a question on Catholic Answers and get a variety of responses.
I like the fact that I can watch a traditional Mass from Florida on my home PC.
I DON’T like the fact that I can’t find a sound Ordinary Form Mass on the ‘net. If I had the money, I’d likely talk to our pastor about arranging for internet broadcasts, but I’m not sure that’d really help the parish or the Church very much. It’s a similar question to that raised above: Even if we put it out there, would anyone watch?

I also don’t like the way that the internet tends to monopolize time for each person. I find I struggle with time management as much now as I ever did. I can be encouraged by what I see on the ‘net, but discouraged by what’s happening—or rather, what’s NOT happening—in the local community.
At one time, we heard the hint that the internet would make our lives—including our faith lives—so much easier because we could communicate—sort of—with numerous people from all over country. And so we can, such as we do here.

But what have we accomplished by this?

I like Michael Voris’ videos, but he has almost as many critics as he does fans.
Has the internet truthfully aided us in becoming more vigorous about our Catholic identity?
Or has it merely provided one more avenue by which we can tell each other how much we each dislike the others’ approach to living faith?

I think the internet and the newer media associates CAN BE a fabulous way to preach, teach, and live faith. But it’ll only become that if the ideas that we present, the practices we propose, and the faith that we LIVE both on AND off the web make it mean something.

In the last 14 years, I’ve seen the internet grow from a novelty where I could easily burn 4 hours in an afternoon to a monstrousity that’s actually worse than cable.
If I couldn’t keep track of 460 channels on cable TV, I can’t even contemplate tracking 4,000 or more communities, blogs, or whatever on the internet. Nor do I wish to attempt doing so.
Nor do I need to. Odd. We used to be “stuck” with maybe 3 TV stations that all would say roughly the same stuff from slightly differing points of view. Now we have MAYBE four or five MAIN points of view—with dozens of quasi-irrelevant sidebars—but now we have millions talking instead of only 3.

In other words, we’ve built our own modern day Babel electronically. ..And we’re getting about the same results!

*shakes head*

Honestly, I’m thinking that we’d be almost as well off if we’d turn off about 99% of the blogs, commentaries, and other STUFF, but placed more energy into making our own communities just a little bit more vigorous with living out Catholic faith.

I quit watching most network and cable TV a long time ago for the same reason. They simply didn’t offer very much.

You want to see the Church thrive? (And/or America?)
Learn to pray a Rosary once a day, attend Mass that often if you can, and do whatever else you’re able to help your local community learn it’s faith, live it’s faith, and be a shining example of Christendom for all to see.
THAT will revitalize the faith in ways that media..can only imitate.

Posted by Matthew Warner on Thursday, Sep 15, 2011 2:16 AM (EDT):

Thank you all for the great comments!

Regarding the drop in google search queries related to Catholicism, I don’t think we have to be too quick to explain it away. I think it’s more likely a reflection of the general population’s interest or curiosity about Catholicism…which could very well be down. But this has absolutely nothing to do with anything “online” in particular…search engines (which happen to be online) is just a great new revolutionary way to gauge that kind of fluctuating interest in the population. First, the search engine stat is measuring the general population (which is massive compared to the engaged Catholic market). So any efforts by the engaged, interested Catholic demo to find Catholic content through google searches would be completely dwarfed by the general population’s fluctuating interest. Second, such fluctuating “search” interest by the general population could be due to a number of factors, such as 1) more or less “catholic” stories in the media, 2) the suffering image of the Church due to the sex abuse scandal and/or 3) a general waning interest by a culture that is becoming increasingly uninterested in traditional religion.

Anyway, that’s just a neither here nor there really when it comes to the “engaged and interested” Catholic demographic’s interest in Catholic new media.

Finally, we have to remember that new media is still very new. These numbers very well may be close to accurate. For those of us immersed in Catholic new media, we experience it every day. So it’s weird to think that most Catholics don’t engage and interact with their faith in this amazing and powerful way. But the truth is that they don’t. If I ask most of my Catholic friends and family, they have no idea about most of the Catholic new media resources. That’s just where we’re at. BUT, this doesn’t mean Catholic new media content is not all it’s cracked up to be at all. And any conclusion as such is, I think, severely misguided.

It’s basically so new that it’s not yet effective to measure it on a large scale yet. They simply don’t know about it yet and/or have no clue how great it is. :-) But for those of us who have experienced it, we know otherwise. We’ve experienced the power of it. The convenience of it. And we see the potential. We just have to keep on sharing that with the Church.

I didn’t take this study as a hit on Catholic new media. I think it’s a good reality check and an indicator for those of us who work in Catholic new media that there is more work to be done. And we’ll gladly and joyfully keep doing it in whatever ways we can. Thank you for all that you all do!

Posted by Tom on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 11:08 PM (EDT):

Matthew, I’m in my mid-20’s and just discovered Catholic blogs this year (including your blog!). Reading thoughtful reflections and commentaries by Catholic bloggers has deepened my understanding of Catholicism. Following discussions in blogs and forums helped me feel connected to the universal Church. Through this and lots of prayer, my faith has been strengthened and matured. The Catholic presence in the new media is definitely having an impact, and I know there are many others out there like me. Thank you!

Posted by Rozann Carter on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 12:54 PM (EDT):

Fantastic assessment of the study, Matt. Thank you.

Posted by Brandon Vogt on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 12:28 PM (EDT):

After banging out that long comment, I compiled all of my thoughts on the CARA survey here:

I have seen Far More discussions online through the new media (i.e. Facebook, etc.) than I ever had before.

Maybe the confusion happens when we think we’re going to ‘set up shop’ and people will come to us to ‘buy our product’. Evangelization does not work like that—Jesus told His disciples to ‘Go Out into all the world’.. therefore, we must go out and meet people where they first assemble. It is THERE that we must bring Christ to the conversation.

Posted by Craig Berry on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 1:04 AM (EDT):

Matt – I agree with all your points. Well done.

Sorry if it’s a little OT…but this has been bugging me ever since I read the study….

One of the elephants in the room is Mass attendance. According to this CARA study, around 25% attend Mass weekly or more often. 25% responded they never attend or rarely.

Huh? These people are identifying themselves as Catholic? If I voted for Republican candidates in each of the last 4 presidential elections, can I still identify myself as Democrat? Let’s demand some honesty and start calling people to account for their behavior.

Posted by tjc on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 12:19 AM (EDT):

http://stjohnsstamford.com/home.php/c/bulletin/

Enjoy

Posted by Nic Haros on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 12:18 AM (EDT):

More is Being Done to Heed Pope Benedict’s Call to All Catholics than is Known. Just See Below What We Have Achieved on Facebook. We Provide Roman Catholic Media Content Globally And Ask Our Page Fans to In-turn Evangelize Using the Internet.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facebook-Apostles/119768228050954

Sincerely,

Nic Haros, Director
Facebook Apostles

Posted by tjc on Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 12:18 AM (EDT):

http://stjohnsstamford.com/home.php/c/bulletin/

Posted by Stan Jarema on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 11:07 PM (EDT):

So the internet and electronic media (whatever the internet morphs into) are here to stay. Look at the above article as simply “obstacles” to be overcome if the Church is to reach the next Generations.I believe it will but the “elders” are not computer savvy. Get the young people in to get the message out! As moveable type transformed written communication so will the internet. Get used to the challenges and overcome them or be left behind.

Posted by Brandon Vogt on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 10:14 PM (EDT):

I’m with Lisa. I don’t totally buy the reasoning that says a drop in Catholic-related Google searches correlates to a decrease in online religious interest. That’s just one marker among many, and a poor one at that.

Posted by Kathy Brents on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 10:03 PM (EDT):

Another point is that you have to be a little clever and persistent to find the good Catholic content online. It has only been in the last couple of months that I have finally found where the Catholics hang out online and now I have a list of ever growing regulars (Hurray!). Before that, it was basically Catholic Online and hunting around the secular new sites for the rare mention of anything Catholic that wasn’t a complete insult. I didn’t even know NCR had a website until they plugged it on EWTN. A google search a couple of months ago resulted in alphabetical lists of too many to slog through, many not even active links and some just not that good or all that Catholic in content, not to mention a top 10 Catholic blogs list from 2009.

Posted by jeremy on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 8:52 PM (EDT):

well, I have learned an important method that works great for evangelization of the Gospel message, and brings about conversions nearly everytime (to some degree) maybe you have heard of it;) Make a friend, Be a friend, bring a friend to Christ. Social media in the hands of virtual missionaries is a frontier that we, on the New Santa Maria, have landed on and are just now begining to settle upon. The content availble to the missionary online is vast and plentiful, like the natural resource the Christ bearer, Columbus, encountered, but it must be worked and its seeds propagated in cultivated fields to have a noticable harvest. I have found relationships that would have been lost had it not been for social media, and the recovered volume of contacts has exponental potential, if we just put our hands to the plow. Keep the quality content coming, Matthew! Thx for all you do.

Posted by Lisa Hendey on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 8:05 PM (EDT):

I have yet to read the study indepth, but did want to comment on the lessening of something like stats for google searches. Honestly, in my opinion, if those of us engaged in Catholic social media are doing our work correctly, then it may indeed lessen the need for things like intentional searches—we are actively engaged all week long, pointing our friends and relatives and contacts (the Catholics and the non-Catholics in our lives as well) to quality, trusted information related to faith. Does my sister need to google “Advent traditions” when I’m linking to a great article from my Facebook page? Does my co-worker need to google “meatless recipes” when I’ve shared a whole section of them on CatholicMom.com? In other words, maybe our success at making sharing our faith—all seven days of the week—simply as a part of who we are is going to have effects we can’t quantify, or that defy traditional statistical analyses. As I said, I still need to read and digest the full report but I don’t find what CARA has reported cause enough to hang up my keyboard and go shoe shopping instead…

Posted by Brandon Vogt on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 7:13 PM (EDT):

I think the CARA folks have been making some misguided conclusions in their studies on new media. For instance, in a recent study they suggested that interest in online Catholicism is dwindling simply because the number of Catholic-related Google searches is down. I don’t quite buy that conclusion. And then in this study, they survey 2,000 self-identifying Catholics who reveal they don’t read many religious blogs. What they miss, though, is that new media’s power comes primarily through evangelization (outside the self-identifying Catholics) and through dialogue (a difficult-to-measure variable.)

They hardly measured or commented on any of the dynamics we feature in “The Church and New Media” book, which is part of the reason why I think their conclusions are off.

Also, the study was funded by the CPA which tends to promote the older media over the new. They want to be affirmed that bulletins, newspapers, and print publications are still in fad—and they are—but they don’t want to hear that young people are moving online.

I think when it comes to new media, we need to look at the loads of anecdotal evidence and see its clear power. Look at Fr. Barron’s stories; look at the success of Catholics Come Home; look at Jennifer Fulwiler and similar online conversions. The list goes on and on.

Another major thing I noticed was that this whole study surveys *intentional* online religious interest. But the power of new media comes through its *unintentionality*. Someone searching for Bob Dylan stumbles across one of Fr. Barron’s videos. Someone browsing their Facebook feed comes across a deep religious discussion. These things are difficult to quantify but obvious to see. I think the anecdotal evidence—at least from what I’ve hear—is painting a really different picture than CARA.

But even if, as a whole, young people aren’t pursuing religion online, that’s precisely why Catholics need to use new media—to meet them unintentionally in their own habitats.

Posted by Angela Santana on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 7:09 PM (EDT):

As usual, Matt, b-i-n-g-o!

Also some comments I’ve shared with Brandon Vogt in a small FB exchange about this CARA study:

I think it’s difficult to research/quantify online ‘interest’. This is why I used anecdotes in my thesis. Plus, new media are just too new…we are still figuring out what we can do with them - how can we quantify their effects if we aren’t even sure what their effects can be? Anecdotes suggest more of an exploratory, human approach.

Posted by Jude on Monday, Sep 12, 2011 7:04 PM (EDT):

Try http://www.catholicbible101.com ...Entertaining and informative, and definitely not too wordy..

Join the Discussion

We encourage a lively and honest discussion of our content. We ask that charity guide your words.
By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our discussion guidelines.
Comments are published at our discretion. We won’t publish comments that lack charity, are off topic, or are more than 400 words.
Thank you for keeping this forum thoughtful and respectful.

Name:

Email:

Write your comment:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

Notify me of follow-up comments.

Comments are no longer being accepted on this article.

About Matthew Warner

Matthew Warner is a lover of God, his wife, his kids, his life, cookies, hot-buttered bread, snoozin' & awkward (as well as not awkward) silence.
He is the founder and CEO of Flocknote, the creator of Tweet Catholic, a contributing author to The Church and New Media book, and writer/founder at The Radical Life.
Matt has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship. He and his family hang their hats in Texas.